Volume 21, Number 7
1997

News

A U.S.-Russian Exchange Program

Since 1994, seven staff members from the State Hermitage Museum
in St. Petersburg have studied conservation in the United States
under the auspices of the Northeast Document Conservation Center.
Six staff members of NEDCC have made reciprocal visits to the
hermitage. This ongoing exchange program has been supported by the
J. Paul Getty Grant Program, the Trust for Mutual Understanding, the
Samuel H. Kress Foundation, the Open Society Institute, and the
United States Information Agency.

A similar exchange plan, mediated by a voluntary organization
called "Craftswomen and Craftsmen at the European House" and
financed partly by the German government, has been established to
arrange exchanges between craftsmen in Eastern and Western Europe.
This plan is being set up by Nikolaus Huhn, who can be reached till
May 1998 at 9 Staff House Road, Runwell, Wickford, Essex, SS11 7PZ
UK (tel: 44 1268 735634).

DoD Establishes Standard Criteria for Records Management
Software

In November, the Design Criteria Standard for Electronic Records
Management Software Applications was approved for use throughout the
Department of Defense. It defines the basic legislative,
operational and regulatory requirements to be met by records
management products bought by the DoD. Commercial products
conforming to the standard were expected "early in 1998."

The standard marks the first time a federal agency has developed
formal criteria for electronic records management. Also developed
were a software test suite and records management software
applications product register. The register will list all record
management software products that are certified for purchase by the
DoD.

A DoD Records Management Task Force was created in 1995, to carry
on the job of planning begun at DoD in 1993. The new task force was
directed by the National Archives and Records Administration, with
membership from sectors of the DoD, and collaboration from
government and industry. Details of the Records Management Plan and
the product register can be found on the Defense Information Systems
Agency's Joint Interoperability Test Command home page at http://jitc-emh.army.mil/recmgt/
The DoD's press release of Dec. 1, 1997, was mounted at http://www.defenselink.mil/news/.

On January 20, Ken Thibodeau at the Archives said that two
software programs were in the process of being certified and others
were in the pipeline, but none had been approved yet. NARA signed
an agreement with DoD in December: It will review DoD's work for
consistency with NARA regulations, and will work to extend their
baseline, e.g. to security, privacy and freedom of information.

John Carlin, Archivist of the U.S., discusses these developments
on p. 3-4 of The Record for January 1998.

A Turntable that Plays Old LPs Without a Needle

Archival Outlook for Jan/Feb. carries a low-key ad
for the E L P Laser Turntable, which senses the vibrations in the
grooves with several laser beams and puts out an electrical signal
from that. It is well suited to playing old and fragile 33.3, 45 or
78 rpm vinyl records, even those recorded at nonstandard speeds. The
National Library of Canada has one, and allowed its comments to be
published in Archival Outlook. There is more
information at the E L P Website: http://www.keyserv.net/elp.
The E L P Corporation is in Japan.

ClO2's Usefulness in Preservation is Explored

Chlorine dioxide, a very reactive, unstable gas which is
routinely used for bleaching in pulp mills and which can be used in
a number of ways for bleaching in paper conservation, is also a
potent biocide and deodorant. It has so many potential uses that
Englehard Corp., a company located in Rhode Island, is investigating
its potential uses in preservation of library and archive
materials.

One of the uses being investigated is mold control in
collections-holding institutions without adequate air conditioning.
Another is odor removal for books from tropical countries, or of
rugs after a water disaster. Englehard says it has a stabilized
form of ClO2, and a sachet that releases small amounts of
ClO2 only when the relative humidity rises above a
certain point. The sachet has been used successfully in one library
that had an area too heavily contaminated for mold growth to be
stopped by control of RH alone.

Hawley's Condensed Chemical Dictionary says that the
compound is usually made at the point of consumption from sodium
chlorate, sulfuric acid and methanol, or from sodium chlorate and
sulfur dioxide; and that it decomposes in water. It is a strong
irritant, with a tolerance of 0.1 ppm in air. At weaker
concentrations, it is used in swimming pools, and for washing
food.

Smithsonian's CAL becomes SCMRE

Education gets equal billing with research in the new name of the
Conservation Analytical Laboratory. Here is the announcement that
Lambertus van Zelst mounted on the Conservation Distribution List in
January:

On January 26, 1998, the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian
Institution voted to rename the Conservation Analytical Laboratory
to: Smithsonian Center for Materials Research and Education
(SCMRE).

The new name was chosen to reflect better the present mission of
SCMRE, of research and education in the conservation, preservation,
technical study and analysis of museum collection items and related
materials. This action by the Board of Regents serves as a formal
approval of this mission and a recognition of SCMRE's status as a
Smithsonian research institute.

Originally established in 1963, principally to provide technical
support to the Smithsonian museums in the analysis and conservation
needs of the collections, CAL moved in 1983 to the then newly
completed Museum Support Center, to embark on a mission of
independently formulated programs in research and education in
conservation and scientific studies of collection materials, serving
a nationwide and international professional audience. Since then,
it has obtained international recognition as a major research and
training facility in its field.

SCMRE will continue building on the existing CAL programs with
the same staff and under the same direction. As a research
institute of the Smithsonian Institution, SCMRE reports to the
Provost....

Short Summer Courses at Camberwell College

Camberwell College in London offers semester-long courses in a
variety of crafts, including bookbinding, but it also teaches
conservation at an undergraduate level. This summer it will offer
short courses in conservation at its Conservation Centre. Some of
them are listed below. Instructors' names and dates are in
parentheses.

What is Conservation? (Mark Sandy, 20 July)
Conservation Mounting (Susana dos Santos, 2 days in April, July or
September)
Conserving Historic Photographic Material (Corinne Hillman, 3 days
in April or July)
The History and Chemistry of Modern Media (Aeli Clarke, 8 July)
The History and Chemistry of Traditional Media (Aeli Clarke, 9-10
July)
Exploring Cold Vacuum Table Techniques (Marcel Ciantar, 30-31
July)
Fee: £30-£165 per course. For information, e-mail the Centre at
<f.bearman@camb.linst.ac.uk>, or call them at 44 171 514 6311
(fax 44 171 514 6315).

Field Services Resume at Upper Midwest Center

The Upper Midwest Conservation Association (UMCA) announced in
February the receipt of an NEH grant to fund its field services
program, which has just been through a period of review and
evaluation. New staff have also been signed on. The new director
is Sherelyn Ogden, former Director of Book Conservation at NEDCC and
fellow of both AIC and IIC; the new Field Services Coordinator is
Mary Robbins, who has six years' experience in museums.

Programs have been planned for the next two years. Two basic
workshops will be offered in each of the five primary states served
by UMCA (Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, and
Wisconsin), and in other states if requested. Two advanced
workshops, funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services,
will be offered in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area:
Environmental Standards for Cultural Institutions (late
summer or fall) and Integrated Pest Management (spring
of 1999).

Other services include 1) general needs assessment surveys and
collection-specific surveys (subsidies available), 2) mentoring
(concentrated, continuing help and support with collections care),
3) Technical assistance in response to requests by phone, fax,
e-mail or written correspondence, and 4) emergency assistance and
help with emergency preparedness planning.

The Field Services Department can be reached by phone at
612/870-3128, fax 612/870-3118 or e-mail <umca@mtn.org>.

ISO Standards in the Pipeline in 1997

ISO/CD 11798, Permanence of writing, printing and copying
on paper documents - Requirements and methods. ["CD" means
"Committee Document."] This one is nearly ready to publish.

Approval expected, but not yet announced: ISO/CD 11799,
Storage requirements for archive and library materials.
The best part of this standard is the section contributed by the
National Fire Protection Association. The standard covers all
aspects of the storage environment, including disaster prevention
measures.

ISO/DIS 11800, Recommendations for binding materials and
methods used in the manufacture of books. ["DIS" means
"Draft international standard."] Edition binding.

ISO/CD 14416, Requirements for binding of books,
periodicals, serials and other paper documents for archive and
library use - Methods and materials. Library binding.

ISO/NP 15659, Standardization of permanent and durable
boards used for bookbinding and storage purposes. "Archival
board."

A new item, no number assigned yet: Information and
documentation--Archives boxes and file covers for paper documents.
"File covers" means "file folders."